Perceptions of forgiveness among Palestinian teachers in Israel

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study conducted among Palestinian teachers in Israel to address their contextual understanding and perceptions of forgiveness. It sheds light on K–12 teachers’ responses to daily cultural and social conflict situations in a Middle Eastern context. This research aims to contribute to our understanding of forgiveness on conceptual as well as perceptual levels, hoping to enhance the knowledge-base needed to educate for forgiveness and reconciliation in Arab society. The present study is the first of several examining forgiveness among teachers in four Middle Eastern countries (Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt). Sixty-two classroom teachers in Arabic-speaking schools among Palestinians in Israel participated in the study. The teachers filled out a survey that included 10 hypothetical scenarios requiring forgiveness. The results from the survey and qualitative written responses suggest a high level of forgiveness when the situation involves parents, children, and social commitments, such as in giving wedding gifts. When the wrongdoing was intentional, there was less willingness to forgive in all cases, except in the case of parents of a child misbehaving. In addition to the present study’s contribution to the research on forgiveness and reconciliation, it also adds to the knowledge-base on constructing curricula for peace education in the Middle Eastern context.

Keywords:

• peace education
• conflict resolution
• forgiveness and reconciliation
• teacher beliefs
• cultural and social values

Notes

1. More details on these organizations are available at: http://www.theparentscircle.com/.

2. More details on Fambul Tok, a reconciliation and forgiveness project in Sierra Leone, are available at: http://www.fambultok.org/about-us/staff-profiles.

3. Using the term ‘Middle Eastern Arab culture’ is a reference to the shared cultural patterns and common cultural threads that guide perceptions and behaviors in the greater Middle East, while acknowledging the existence of specific local commonalities among different communities in the region regarding forgiveness in particular and conflict resolution in general.

4. This term will be used to refer to the Palestinian-Arab minority in Israel.

5. This survey is one of the few instruments that exist in the field to measure responses to forgiveness. Other instruments were examined and were determined not suitable to adapt to the cultural context of the participants in this research.

6. Both land and honor are perceived to be of great importance and value in Arab culture (see Sharabi [1985] on Arab culture).

7. The analysis was conducted by a statistician familiar with the measures and context.

8. The survey included 10 cases and in each case there was one open-ended qualitative question. This resulted in a possible total of 620 responses; however, not every participant responded to all the qualitative questions. The range of responses for each question was 54–65. The numbers in Table 7 are derived from that total.

9. High context culture is a term presented by Hall (1976) as the tendency to cater in communication to the in-group which is the group that has similar qualities and experiences. In a high context culture, there are less explanations and the culture itself provides explanations without words.